Effect of need constraints on shared economy

Abstract

The aim of this project is to understand the effects of need based constraints on sharing economy. Quantitative results have been used to approach the problem. An experiment was designed which aimed to find the effects of product and time based scarcity on purchase intention and intent to share. the hypothesis being tested was: Product and Time scarcity have a positive effect on customer purchase intention and sharing of products. Six scenarios were designed. Each scenario aimed to understand the relationship between two independent variables namely product scarcity and time scarcity and dependent variables namely purchase intention and intent to share. The combinations were: purchase intention with no scarcity, purchase intention with time scarcity, purchase intention with product scarcity, intent to share with no scarcity, intent to share with product scarcity and intent to share with time scarcity. In all total 180 respondents were surveyed. For each scenario 30 respondents were surveyed. The results obtained are as follows: 1. Product scarcity or time scarcity has a positive effect on the purchase intention. 2. The sharing tendency of consumers in general increases when they see an upcoming scarcity of products or the time remaining to use the product. 3. In case of no scarcity, if price difference is perceived to be insignificant consumers prefer owning a product individually rather than sharing it. 4. Time scarcity plays in the mind of consumer more than the product scarcity, when it comes to sharing of product